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A Facebook Contest Playbook. Part 5: Results

Total impressions for the giveaway posts was 18,421, and the total likes was 1,900.

The Facebook ad resulted in 52 new page likes for Spaah!

The giveaway resulted in 153 new page likes in total, an increase of 11.5%.

The average acquisition cost per new fan was $1.84.

Spaah! saw its most successful day in its history a week after the giveaway ended.

After the giveaway, Spaah!’s fan base continues to grow.

Marketing is a constant struggle to measure our efforts and tie them back to tangible results. Luckily, since Facebook Insights and Ad Manager make it easy to track and view metrics, it’s just a matter of taking the time to look at them and learn. “The 12 Days of Giving” delivered strong results for Spaah! that will keep on giving.

Engagement. From the introductory post to the day 13 wrap up post, the giveaway’s posts earned 18,421 impressions and 1,900 likes. Impressions peaked on day 7 with 2,004 (day 10 was very close with 2,000), and likes peaked on day 11 with 209 (day 12 was very close with 206). This supports my belief that a giveaway like this needs several days to gain momentum. But even with the escalating prizes, engagement hit a plateau, hence why giveaways don’t need to go too long.Likes from Ad Campaign. In the 11 days the Facebook ad promoting “The 12 Days of Gift Cards” ran, it reached 6,513 individuals in the target market of female IU students. As you may recall, Facebook estimated the total size of that audience was 6,600, so we reached almost all of them! 52 of them became new Facebook fans for Spaah!

These 52 fans will be very valuable since every time in the future they interact with Spaah! on Facebook, their friends (also likely to be IU students) may see that in their news feeds. Since 18-24-year-olds have 510 Facebook friends on average, that’s a huge potential organic reach for Spaah! In turn, the friends of fans may check out Spaah!’s Facebook page, click “Like”, become customers, and increase Spaah!’s revenue.

Organic likes. Other than the 52 new fans as a result of the ad campaign, the popularity of the giveaway organically resulted in 101 new fans – likely friends of current fans. Overall, Spaah!’s page likes increased from 1,331 right before the contest to 1,484 fans right after the contest. The 153 new fans represent an 11.5% increase.

Total cost per new fan. Since the total cost of the giveaway was $281.21, the acquisition cost per fan was $1.84. Since liking a page is signing up to see future posts, this small amount is worth the potential benefits of staying top of mind and increasing the likelihood of their booking a spa appointment.

It’s interesting to note that if we had not spent the $49.21 on the ad campaign, the cost per new fan would have been $2.29 (101 divided by $232). Including the ads, though it increased the total cost of the campaign, actually drove down the per fan acquisition cost. Plus, ads can be very precisely targeted at a market in which you want to grow your presence.

Likes since the contest. Since the contest ended, a few fans have unliked Spaah!’s page, presumably since they were only interested in winning a gift certifcate. That’s always a possibility when you’re giving something away. However, Spaah!’s fanbase continues to grow and stands at 1,495 one month after the contest ended.

Revenue. As I mentioned, the ultimate goal was not to increase Spaah!’s likes but its revenue. Spaah! saw its most successful day in terms of revenue in its 18-year history on December 23, a week after the contest ended. There are likely many factors that were involved in setting this record, including the holiday season, but “The 12 Days of Gift Cards” likely had a large role.

Interestingly, these customers were likely mostly locals since college students go home for the holidays. This was a good reminder to me that while IU students are a key market for Spaah!, catering to them too heavily might risk alienating the other key market of Bloomington residents.

Takeaways

When evaluating the success of your giveaway, consider your engagement, net new likes, like increase percentage, total cost, cost per new fan.

Monitor fan growth after a giveaway to see if new fans stick around or bail. If they leave in droves, make adjustments next time.

Evaluate how your campaign may have helped in reaching your goals.

Don’t risk alienating one market to cater to another.

I hope this playbook will help you put together a successful giveaway of your own! I would love to respond to your questions, comments and experiences. Best of luck achieving your organization’s goals!